Fluoride News Tracker

Tooth decay: a sad national epidemic caused by lack of dentists who care and not a fluoride need. Extensive lobbying, political maneuvering and expensive public relations campaigns by organized dentistry sway legislators to add fluoride chemicals into public water supplies, 2/3 of which already are, to benefit those whom dentists neglect. Protecting their high-salaried monopoly, dentists lobby against dental groups offering quality, cheaper fixes. Fluoride product makers benefit most.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Roanoke MOM � Roanoke Mission of Mercy Project

Virginia is 95% fluoridated: Roanoke MOM � Roanoke Mission of Mercy Project: In Southwest,Virginia, there is a profound need for access to affordable dental services for low-income, uninsured, and underserved adults. For the past four years, the Roanoke Mission of Mercy Project has provided $2.7 million in free dental services to over 4000 adults in the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas. The Roanoke Mission of Mercy Project is conducted one weekend each year and uses portable dental equipment for cleanings, x-rays, oral surgery, and fillings.

It’s a growing problem in Michigan and across the country. Locally, there aren’t enough dentists in Ingham County who provide care for those without insurance or on Medicaid.

Some officials estimate that figure is now as high as 100,000 visits per year in Michigan, with more than 1,000 hospitalizations annually for preventable dental problems.

In [mostly fluoirdated] Ingham County, at least 1,500 trips are made to hospital emergency rooms annually for toothaches that could have
been treated with proper preventive care. Sometimes, those trips turn into weeklong hospital stays if an infection
has spread.In Ingham County alone, 51 longer-term hospitalizations for preventable dental problems were recorded in 2008, with
patients averaging a stay of 2½ days at a cost of $19,074, according to the latest data available from the Michigan Oral
Health Coalition.

At Sparrow Hospital, part of [fluoridated] Lansing’s Sparrow Health System, an average of three to five patients and sometimes as many as 10 seek dental care help each day, said Dr. Tony Briningstool, executivedirector of emergency services at Sparrow.

Nationally, the lack of dental care for these people led to more than 800,000 trips to the emergency room for dental pain in 2009 — a 16 percent increase from 2006,

And it isn’t just a problem in toddlers. By third grade, 47.4 percent of children had tooth decay, with 15.4 percent of that decay untreated, according to a 2009 state survey. Southwest Virginia had the greatest proportion of children with untreated dental decay at 25 percent.

Licklider said she's noticed the trend at her own practice, Licklider Family Dentistry on Second Street in Marietta. She believes a variety of factors are in play.
"I attribute it to more kids drinking pop and sweet tea and Gatorade, sports drinks, at an earlier age," she said.

At Nationwide Children's Hospital in [fluoridated] Columbus, Ohio, chief of dentistry Dr. Paul Casamassimo has observed worse than that. "We've had kids in there between 2 and 3 years of age where all 20 of their teeth need to have something done to them," he said.

Casamassimo said other theories involve children from low-income families having weaker teeth because of poor diets and even a mother's high-sugar diet during pregnancy "programming" her child to crave more sugar. The exact cause of the increase has not been determined, he said.

Guest Editorial: For children, the gift of a healthy smile | DL-Online | Detroit Lakes, Minnesota: Nationwide, fewer than half of children enrolled in Medicaid — the health insurance program for the poor — get any dental care at all. And that’s not just the parents’ fault: “Only about 20 percent of the nation’s dentists provide care to people with Medicaid, and, of those who do, only a small percentage devote a substantial part of their practice to serving those who are poor, chronically ill or living in rural communities,” a recent U.S. Senate report declared.

Moreover, even children from more affluent families are turning up with toothaches, face pain and a startling number of cavities. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted an increase, the first in 40 years, in the number of preschoolers with cavities in a study five years ago,” The New York Times reported earlier this week.

“But dentists nationwide say they are seeing more preschoolers at all income levels with 6 to 10 cavities or more. The level of decay, they added, is so severe that they often recommend using general anesthesia because young children are unlikely to sit through such extensive procedures while they are awake.”

"We're booked five months out in the OR, and that's three days a week, two rooms a day. And it just keep increasing," said Janine Costantini, ambulatory practice director at Children’s Hospital Colorado. "The more we do the more we need."

“I think they go to the emergency room because they’re uninsured, they’re in pain, and they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Hatfield said. “Even though the emergency room does not have dentists on staff, at least they can get pain medication and antibiotics.”

Monday, March 12, 2012

Dental care in America: A system in decay | MailTribune.com

Dental care in America: A system in decay | MailTribune.com: In Illinois, fluoridation is state-mandated Pekin Hospital in the central Illinois town of Pekin has seen a significant increase in ER patients with "very poor dental health," said Cindy Justus, the hospital's ER nursing director. They include uninsured patients and drug abusers, and many are repeat patients.

Shortages of dentists, especially in rural areas, have contributed to the problem, as well.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Dental Professor to Congress: Oral Health is Vital | LifeHealthPro

Dental Professor to Congress: Oral Health is Vital | LifeHealthPro: Subcommittee members reviewed the work of researchers from the Pew Center on the States, Washington, who reported earlier this week that patients with dental problems are flooding into emergency rooms, and that about 20% of emergency room visits in Minnesota [where fluoridation is state-mandated] are the result of dental problems.

An oral health reform idea in New Hampshire is rooted in controversy - SentinelSource.com: Editorial

An oral health reform idea in New Hampshire is rooted in controversy - SentinelSource.com: Editorial: Untreated dental conditions led to 830,590 visits to emergency rooms nationwide in 2009, up 16 percent from three years before, according to a recent study by the Pew Center on the States, a non-profit agency that focuses on public policy. A New Hampshire report several years ago tracked emergency room visits for eight health conditions and found dental ailments accounted for the “most notable increase.” Often, those showing up at hospitals with oral health problems are children enrolled in Medicaid whose families can’t find a dentist willing to take their insurance.

What Parents Need to Know About Primary Teeth Care - Well Being (washingtonian.com)

During her residency, Austin recalls setting aside every Thursday and Friday for at least four surgeries for patients. “Usually, the kids were four and under,” she says, “and sometimes as young as one.”

Austin says her youngest patient was 18 months old, while her worst case involved a child who had to undergo surgery for all 20 teeth. “It’s so heartbreaking,” she says, “and it’s usually because parents just don’t know the importance of primary teeth care.”

Friday, March 09, 2012

A mouthful of trouble

Burlington, Iowa is fluoridated:

A mouthful of trouble: Amy Groeltz, whose South Fifth Street dental clinic, the Smile Shoppe, opened in 2007, has noted some increase in severe cases of decay. So has Bill Daws, a physician at Burlington Pediatrics, where well-child checkups take dental health into account.

EDITORIAL: For children, the gift of a healthy smile | GK Health

EDITORIAL: For children, the gift of a healthy smile | GK Health: Nationwide, fewer than half of children enrolled in Medicaid -- the health insurance program for the poor -- get any dental care at all. And that's not just the parents' fault: "Only about 20 percent of the nation's dentists provide care to people with Medicaid, and, of those who do, only a small percentage devote a substantial part of their practice to serving those who are poor, chronically ill or living in rural communities," a recent U.S. Senate report declared.

Dentists at the U.T. Health Science Center Dental School showed images from a typical case. A San Antonio patient has 11 cavities. He’ll need major intervention, including a root canal. The patient is only five years old.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Oral_Health_Maine_ESandRep120209.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Maine is 80% fluoridated. In 2006, dental complaints were the number one reason why MaineCare patients or uninsured patients between the ages of 15 and 44 years went to an ED for services (Kilbreth et al., 2010). In that year, there were 3,430 ED visits related to a dental diagnosis among ED patients age 15 years to 24 years (Kilbreth et al., 2010). Forty-five percent of visits for dental problems in this age cohort were by frequent users of ED services (Kilbreth et al., 2009). Also in 2006, there were 4,949 visits for dental problems among ED patients age 25 years to 44 years, and a dental problem was also the primary reason for an ED visit for this age cohort. In all, there were 8,379 visits to EDs in Maine in 2006 for dental pain and related diagnosis by people age 15 to 44 years.

MaineCare patients are more likely to use ED services. MaineCare insured about 17% of the state’s population, but MaineCare insured individuals generated 32% of all ED visits in 2006 (Kilbreth et al., 2010). While 56% of the state’s population is privately insured, only 33% of ED visits were made by privately insured individuals in that year (Kilbreth et al., 2010). ED care is more expensive than dental care provided in other outpatient settings. The various reasons for the disproportionate use of EDs by MaineCare eligible patients include patient preference, lack of knowledge about appropriate ED use, lack of dental insurance or patient resources to cover the cost of care, and lack of availability of routine dental care.

Report Highlights Maine's Unmet Dental Needs

Saxl says Maine already has a dental crisis, and it's going to get worse if nothing is done. "We have this huge problem in Maine," he says. "Right now we have a dental crisis, we have a shortage of dentists and in the next 10 years, 40 percents of our dentists are over 55, and in the next 10 years we expect many of them to retire."

Report: Toddlers with 10 cavities or more on rise | KBZK.com | Z7 | Bozeman, Montana: HealthPop spoke to Dr. Stanley Alexander, chair of pediatric dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in [fluoridated for decades] Boston, who said his dentists are in the operating room at least two mornings a week seeing up to nine preschool-aged patients in need of surgery for cavities. He's seen this problem dating back to when he was a resident in the 1970s.

"It's not new - it's been going on quite a while," Alexander told CBS HealthPop.

Dentists Send More Kids to Hospital for Dental Work

Dentists Send More Kids to Hospital for Dental Work in fluoridated Rochester, NY: It's a disturbing trend, local dentists are sending more kids to the hospital to have their teeth fixed. Dentists said they're seeing preschoolers with 10 and sometimes or more rotten teeth that they're forced to fill, cap and even pull.

It happened to two of the Adams' children. Eileen and her husband are average parents playing and trying to keep their kids healthy by making sure they brush regularly.

But it wasn't enough to keep 8-year-old Emily and 3-year-old Derek out of the operating room.

"It finally got to the point where I was brushing her teeth and she was screaming in pain," Eileen Adams, mother of threes, said. "I decided that that was the time to get to a dentist."

Tooth Decay in Children Continues to Rise - YNN, Your News Now

Locally, the Eastman Center in [fluoridated] Rochester, treats 500 kids a year for severe decay. Since 1967, Eastman Dental has been using mobile dental units to reach out to kids in the Rochester City School District and more rural areas.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Preschool Mouths: Dental Disaster Zones - ABC News: During an interview, he said he’d just received a phone call from an [fluoridated] NYU pediatric dental resident who had examined a 4-year-old with several cavities, including one that had caused major facial swelling. “The infection had gone through the tooth, down into the surrounding bone of the jaw and spread up into the face under the eye,” Moursi said.

The child was going to be treated with powerful antibiotics, but might still require a trip to the operating room to extract the tooth, he said. In rare cases, such dental infections can spread to the brain, or into the heart and lungs, he said.

“When you have a 6-month wait to get into the O.R. and they’re all 3-year-olds, we know we have a problem,” Moursi said.

Preschool Mouths: Dental Disaster Zones - ABC News: Just this morning, Dr. Jonathan D. Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in [fluoridated] Augusta, Maine, found six small cavities between the teeth of a 4-year-old girl during her first-ever appointment with a dentist, who should have been seen by her first birthday. The girl’s mother was at a loss to account for all the decay in her daughter’s mouth, telling Shenkin that she thought she had her children doing everything right: “We don’t drink soda. They brush their teeth twice a day.”